In certain circumstances, it may be desirable to have a locking mechanism that locks a door from the inside—that is from the side toward which the door closes, as opposed to the side toward which the door swings open—where a conventional door lock is not available or can be unlocked from the outside, for example, by use of a key or by breaking a window and reaching through the window to turn the inner doorknob or a lock near the inner doorknob. Such a locking mechanism may, for example, be beneficial in a school classroom setting when there is a lockdown situation where a teacher is instructed to safeguard students in the classroom when there is a disruption or dangerous situation existing elsewhere in or around the school.
In a school classroom, doors typically swing out away from the classrooms and toward the hallway. Moreover, school classroom doors frequently have a locking mechanism that may be operated by key from the outside the classroom, but not from the inside the classroom. Such a door locking arrangement may be desirable to prevent access to the room when it is not to be occupied and to prevent a student or other person from entering the room and locking teachers, administration, or security out of the room. Such a school door locking arrangement may, however, be disadvantageous during, for example, a lockdown situation.
School classroom doors also generally have a window that extends to near the knob. That window could be broken permitting a person outside the door to reach through the window and turn the knob from the inside to circumvent a knob based lock or a lock positioned near the knob. Deadbolts and other locking mechanisms are typically not used in classroom door applications, again, to prevent anyone inside the room from locking the door, such as a student locking a teacher, administrator, or security officer out of the classroom. Thus a door, such as the typical classroom door described hereinabove, may not be suited for a situation where the door is desired to be secured from the inside, for example when a lockdown situation arises.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to have a locking or clamping mechanism that is separate from the door and may be applied to the door from the side on which the door closes to prevent the door from being opened by someone outside the door. Such a door clamp could be self-contained, portable, and able to be secured and accessed by a limited number of people.
Such a door clamp may be used at schools, offices, post offices, hospitals, or any facility where doors open outward and are without a secure built in locking mechanism on the inside. The jamb lock door clamp described herein may thus provide security in situations, including lockdowns, where intruders must be prevented from entering a room.
Certain embodiments of the present door clamping mechanism provide apparatuses and methods to prevent access to a room by preventing a person outside the room from unlocking a door from outside the door and from opening the door by either of its interior or exterior knobs.